Angela Quintal, a South African journalist arrested together with Kenya’s Muthoki Mumo in Tanzania, has described the animosity they experienced while in the country.
Through an essay in the Daily Maverick, South Africa, Quintal revealed that Mumo was more targeted in the abduction since she was a young black female and “Kenyan to boot.”
She revealed that Mumo was accused of betraying black people asking whether she, Quintal, was really South African as she claimed.
“The men specifically targeted Muthoki Mumo,” she wrote, “An intelligence agent was particularly abusive towards Muthoki. He even slapped and shoved her. I tried to intervene and was told to back off. I was terrified that Muthoki would be sexually assaulted and I would be powerless to stop them.”
On the arrest, Quintal noted that the hotel manager appeared on their door with several other people dressed in plain clothes who claimed they were there for an immigration check.
Their passports and electronic devices were then withdrawn. They were bundled into a minivan which was driven aimlessly around Dar es Salaam in an effort to disorient them.
They were then taken to a safe house manned by men in plain clothes who she described that “their animosity was palpable.”
“We were alone at the mercy of a posse of men, some of whom were very abusive and hostile. The only woman agent had long gone home,” she stated.
After five hours in custody, they were finally freed when a message she had posted online caused an uproar across the international community, prompting the US State Department to closely monitor the activities.
After they left the country, Quintal noted that they are still concerned about the nation’s press continuous target including a cybercrimes law where people are continuously prosecuted for “insulting” the president.
Muthoki and Quintal are press freedom advocates of the Committee to Protect Journalist based in New York.
